Poker Pro Andy Hwang wins WPT Borgata Winter Open

With a field of over 1,000 players, the 2013 World Poker Tour Borgata Winter Open Main Event was one of the largest events in the history of the WPT, drawing in some of the biggest names in tournament poker despite competing head-to-head with the Aussie Millions tournament series taking place halfway around the world. In the end it was Andy Hwang who would walk away with the top prize of over $730k and his first major live tournament win.

The tournament field topped-off at 1,042 players, bringing the total prize-pool to just over $3.3 million for the $3,500 buy-in Main Event.

Hwang has only one other cash on his poker resume, a $5,000 score for finishing second in a $500 HORSE tournament at the 2011 Southern Poker Championship, but Hwang is a professional poker player, hailing from Houston, Texas.

While most of the big names like Jonathan Little, Joe Serock, Matt Glantz, Allen Kessler, Matt Matros, Andrew Badecker, and Cherish Andrews fell by the wayside, one well-known player and former WPT winner did manage to make the final table, Matt Salsberg. Unfortunately for Salsberg, he entered the final table on an extremely short-stack and was unable to get anything going, finishing in 6th place.

Here is a look at the Top 10 finishers in the 2013 WPT Borgata Winter Open Main Event:

1. Andy Hwang — $730,053

2. James Anderson — $438,698

3. Mike Gogliormella — $265,475

4. Matt Haugen — $222,336

5. Jeremy Druckman — $182,514

6. Matthew Salsberg — $147,671

7. Cuong Phung — $117,805

8. Jeremy Stein — $89,598

9. Hung Truong — $61,391

10. Adam Cook — $39,821

The WPT’s next stop will be at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood, Florida for the WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open. The Main Event will feature a $3,500 buy-in and will get started on February 8th running through February 12th. From there the World Poker Tour will move on to Vienna (which is becoming one of the hottest poker destinations in Europe) followed by the always popular WPT LA Poker Classic at the Commerce Casino at the end of the month.

Thus far the WPT has had an excellent Season XI, with attendance rebounding at events across the globe after declining attendance over the past handful of years. The WPT is seemingly going to stick with their decision of keeping only a few events with high-buy-ins while reducing others (like the Borgata Winter Open and the Lucky Hearts Poker Open) to $3,500 buy-in events and allowing for reentries.

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